Firmament
by YoungestThunderbird
Summary: The sky is above all. Companion piece to Endless and Growing


The sky is over all. It is the last refuge of dreamers, and gives rise to the horizon that explorers love so; it is an expression of home, and the world. It is universal, in the simplest sense of the word; everywhere has a sky. And, indeed, the world knows that the sky represents hope, and dreams. The sky is distant, but dreamers love it anyway, for their dreams live in the same place it does...

...

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a fairly normal intiate in the Temple. He had friends, and rivals; he was good at diplomacy, but bad at math. However, he had a small fire burning behind his eyes that nothing seemed to quench. It was noticed by his friends and instructors, commented on by the crèche masters, but no one knew why it was there. Not even Obi-Wan himself knew. However, the pilots who delivered goods to the temple occasionally saw him, and smiled. Every pilot had that light in his eyes at some time or other. One, a young man with many strange patches on his jacket, even took him aside one day and told him about bright-eyed men who broke their atmosphere for the first time and changed their world.

"It's the dream-fire, kid." He said.

"It makes you do impossible things, and speak dissenting words; but if it steers you wrong, I'll eat my control yoke. The place you think you are going to go to rarely is; it's the spice of life that keeps things exciting!" He introduced himself as Cosmo, and visited many times secretly.

The last time he visited was just before the initiate's tournament.

"He who dares, wins, Obi." He said.

"But take care not to lose yourself."

And he told a story of a great journey, a man desperately trying to get home, and the monsters he fought along the way that almost made him lose himself and his beloved. Obi-wan reminded him, yet again, that Jedi don't have beloveds, and Cosmo just smiled.

 _It was not until many years later, on Tatooine, that Obi-wan realized the story's meaning. He had almost lost himself, but it was not the end yet. He supposed that that tricky young star pilot knew that a Jedi's beloved was the Force; he had talked about it enough to the young Obi-wan. He supposed he could break atmosphere just one more time..._

...

Han grew up running in the streets of Correlllia, a bright-eyed, scruffy urchin with choppy hair and ragged clothing. He would hang around the pilots, like many of the other urchins, hoping to carry their bags or help with cleanup for a credit. One of the pilots, in a strange freighter with REDSTONE inscribed on the side, especially seemed to like him, and would pay him to do small repairs on his ship. He called himself Sputnik.

After the work was done, he would occasionally tell the young Han stories from his homeworld. When Han was down, he told a story of a great man who wanted everyone to be treated equally; it was his dream. How he dearly wanted for his children to be judged for who they were, and not what they looked like. And, finally, how he was shot and killed by those who opposed him, but his voice only grew louder after his death.

"That's stupid." Han said.

"He shouldn't have died."

Sputnik looked sad and told him of the first space pilots of his homeworld, how some died when their equipment malfunctioned.

"Death is a part of life, kid. It's inescapable. So, think long and hard about what you want to leave behind."

He had to leave more and more as the Imperial presence grew stronger. The last time Han saw him, he was told a story of a group of men who threw off a tyrannical ruler and changed the world. Han scoffed, and Sputnik just smiled as if he knew an inside joke. Han applied for the Imperial academy not long after that, and never saw Sputnik again.

 _On Hoth, however, he has plenty of time to think about that crazy old man who got cut down on the Death Star, and how his voice merely grew louder, like in the story. He also didn't appreciate the parallels between Hoth and that place called Valley Forge. It didn't stop him from getting a tricorn hat, and wearing it for three days to drive the Princess crazy. Onward to Yorktown..._

...

FN-2187 hated sanitation duty, but he hated cleaning out the prisoner's cells even more. Some of them were crazy, and some of them tried to hit him, and some of them just sat and stared, which was the worst. However, there was one bright spot in the job: a pilot named Kokav, picked up for disturbing the peace on some backwater planet, but was never quite released. He would talk to FN-2187 as he came to clean out the cell. He would tell stories, some of which smacked of rebellion, but FN-2187 never quite worked up the nerve to report him.

He first story he told was of fairies that snatched children and took their names. How the fairies took the kids away from their families and made them their servants. FN-2187 asked who could make the fairies submit to order. Kokav shook his head and said that the fairies were the ones who were supposed to keep order in the first place.

He told many stories while he was there. Simple stories, mythologies, stories for children and adults. However, he always made sure to tell some stories that made FN-2187's head hurt. It went against all he had been taught, but this man loved freedom like it was his remaining light in the darkness. What could it mean?

The story that stuck with him came on an ordinary day. It one of the simple ones, from an enslaved people who were taken far from their home. How they used to have wings, but the wings were taken from them. How they worked in despair, until their wings came back, suddenly- and they flew far away.

"There are no species like that that the Empire knew of." FN-2187 told him.

It must be noted that he still didn't grasp the concept of fiction very well. So Kokav told him a second short story, from that same people; how they managed to break their chains and run into the water, and walked across the ocean to their homeworld. FN-2187 still didn't understand why freedom was so valuable, so he kept silent.

The last time he saw Kokav, he was told of an Underground Road that took slaves away from their masters, and how former slaves stayed to help others. He kept quiet after that one too.

However, the next time he came to clean Kokav's cell, it was empty; when he asked the prisoners, he got the normal surly glares, but also a couple smug smiles from the ones that told him that Kokav had escaped. FN-2187 never figured out how.

 _Later, with the Resistance, Finn understood better. He had found his wings, and flown far away; away from the 'fairies' (if only they were merely a story!). Now he needed to set up an underground road of his own..._

 _..._

The sky is not near as concerned with the past as with the future, and it keeps looking forward without looking back. It has a thousand names, and a thousand stories, but it has even more dreams...

Notes:

Cosmo is from the Greek kosmos, which means world

Sputnik means a traveling companion, and was the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth.

Kokav is hebrew, and also means star.

The patches are a reference to mission patches from NASA

The redstone was a type of rocket used by NASA for a short time.

The first story is of the Space Race.

The second is the Odessey.

The third is of Martin Luther King

The fourth is the American Revolution

The fifth is in the vein of British fairy folklore

The sixth is a African/African-American folktale.

So is the seventh.

And the eighth is the Underground Railroad.


End file.
